Kathmandu, June 2:

I always say that I am not just lucky but blessed, for destiny made me interact with a game called golf. Now being a golf journalist has a lot of advantages. While giving a chance to see some of the biggest players in flesh and blood, we do get to visit some of the most beautiful golf courses in the world.

It was in 2002 that I visited the Gokarna Forest Golf Resort for the first time. I had varied notions about the golf course — it was a just guess work as to how would a golf course look like in a country where a handful of golfers played the game.

However, I was stunned by the sheer beauty of the Gokarna Forest Golf Resort and wondered how one could concentrate on the pins rather than the beauty of the course! And today the handful has turned into hundreds and hosts the most successful Surya Nepal Masters.

The course situated in a forest has not been disturbed much naturally by David McLay Kidd who has designed the Brandon Dunes in Oregon, touted as one of the most beautiful golf courses in that part of the world. The various flora and fauna add to the beauty of the course.

The Modern golf course (built in and after 1960) architects created a significant difference in the construction of golf courses. Due to improvised technologies, the layouts were made in an extremely tasteful manner. The highs and lows, though made artificially, were given a natural look.

The bunkers got better silhouette and finishing. The fairways and greens, due to scientific techniques of maintenance and advanced equipments, looked elegant. The variety of machines to cut grass and the computerised irrigation systems have taken the quality of turf not just a notch but quite a few notches above.

The ornamental bushes, colourful flowerbeds, tall and thick trees, attractive water bodies and channels gave a new dimension to the courses. The present day designer emphasises on strongly family focused golf courses keeping in mind golfers and non-golfers during construction whereas earlier nobody cared.

This is where the Gokarna Forest Golf Resort has all the qualities of a great course not only in terms of playing conditions but the facilities off the course which are just amazing. And why not, for, Prem Sachdev the Chairman of the Resort who is an ex Singapore Open Amateur Champion knows the golfers’ necessities and evinces a personal interest in the upkeep of the facility.

Truly Nepal is lucky to have a golf course as beautiful and challenging as Gokarna Forest Golf Resort.

Sayeed is Director,

Tiger Sports and is writing exclusively for The

Himalayan Times